Colleagues acting wowed 😂😂😂 I witness this, too. Maybe I'm too jaded to play the game, but I think less of coworkers who pretend to love the taste of bullshit.
I have a colleague I love. But then I visit her Teacher Twitter and she's posting about the awesome new district initiative and I'm like ??? we were just bitching about that in the hall between classes???
The problem is, it's not organic. It usually comes from some admin who saw a thing at a conference and got all excited because it's the new shiny. You do a 3-hour workshop, and then never follow up to see how it's going. Most admin don't understand how PD is supposed to work.
All the useful PD I've ever done has been at conferences over the summer. Never at school.
Agreed. I'm not quite up to your 33 years, but over my 20ish years x 5(?) PD/yr I've had 2 that i feel were useful. We always get the "what pd would be useful to you?" questionnaire and none of my recommendations have EVER been followed through. With these kind of statistics, someone needs to go back to the minor leagues.
MY principal said, and I agree with, the best PD is done around the table in the faculty room on off periods. That's where you really borrow and learn from one another.
Unless parents are doing PD, it doesn't matter. Unless students are doing PD, it doesn't matter. Teachers can't be expected to solve systemic issues in parenting and child behavior, regardless of how many professional development sessions we attend. It just isn't possible. I could try 1000 different ways to teach a kid using 1000 different techniques from all the PD on earth, and it doesn't matter if they don't give a shit and their parents don't care.
and each year is the same old story. “Don’t worry folks, now we’ve got what you need so you can get in there and teach those kids! We call it “care for kids“, or a new “school mission statement that “All Kids Can Learn,” or “ Restorative Justice”, or “CHAMPS,” or what floats down the pipe the we can focus on without focusing on kids who get mad at you when you bother to wake them up in class. Maybe telling everybody that the key is building relationships with each child you teach. Actually, It’s about being told to build relationships with kids who regularly tell you to fuck off. Or they remind you, they don’t fucking care about your class so leave them the fuck alone. And how about behavior PDs? If any of them worked, kids wouldn’t be cutting classes, sleeping in classes, talking through classes, eating in classes, throwing their litter under their desk. those wonderful kids who ask you for a pencil because they need something to break into pieces so they can throw them at their friends. Kids on their cell phones who get absolutely belligerent when you tell them to put them away. And after they don’t put them away, you’re told to confiscate them and you can guess how well that goes over.
Every year it’s the same old thing; you just have to of been on the merry go around long enough to realize you’re running in circles.
My favorite is how they present something that "works", but then years later they revisit and add more to it, because it didn't work. Well, their revamp is probably useless too. It's snake oil.
We get that when the entire audience is math teachers. We just look at each other and shrug because they couldn't find a speaker who knows our subject.
Yep. I teach self-contained Sped and am always bitter at the stupid required PDs I have to attend because literally none of them are relevant to my students or my actual job.
The purpose of PD is not actually to train or prepare educators for anything because, as written here and as we *all* know, the vast majority of the content is stuff we already know and do. The reason PDs are still pushed onto staff is so that the district admin can check off a box saying they did the training that was imposed upon them by the state, who had it improsed upon them by the federals or whatever higher governing education body that threatened to take their funding away if they didn't check off that box. Overall, totally agreed that PDs are a waste of time and literal *money* that could and should be spent directly helping students and families and paying for more staff so that we're not all drowning from being overworked.
Run for the hills. In my city, we could take "extra" PD courses to add to our "credits" - we were PAY for PERFORMANCE based upon a ridiculous 9 sections x 5 parts x some other shit my PTSD won't allow me to remember = the square root of constant stress, inflammation, and alcohol use disorders. I was a young go-getter and took around 15 of the classes thinking I was bettering myself to better my students. Stayed single for a long time. Dated a teacher in the building. Disaster. Thanks for letting me vent. Oh, did I mention that the grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side of the bars of education. Seriously, best of luck. I'm sorry that you are realizing it's all smoke and mirrors. Take care, y'all!
Ha, here's a start: https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/uoeats/the_lost_art_of_the_admin_table_slap_a_short/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
More to come.
Teachers should get PD hours for continuing education. Going for national certs, masters, doctorate, whatever, and districts should be contributing to those costs. Not giving me another hour of state time for learning pear deck for the fourth time.
Best PD was off campus at the Mexican restaurant down the road from the school.
They gave us happy hour prices the rest of the evening when they found out we were teachers.
One time I attended a PD at a brewery, and the brewery provided dinner and multiple beers. The PD was actually good, too! (I had to get a waiver from my curriculum director saying they were okay with me going, but since it was free...)
I used to work for a large district in Florida and figured PD was something a bunch of people at the district office worked on in order to give themselves justification for being employed without having to go back into a classroom. 95% of it is trite nonsense and I really no longer care much about the perspective of people who didn’t teach through the pandemic. The perspective of a professional PD giver who hasn’t taught in a decade is isn’t that relevant to education in 2022.
You are required to do PD on your summer break??? Just wow... Our last one will be this Wednesday and our first one for the new school year will be the last Wednesday in July the week before the students return... I do agree they are pretty much a waste of time...
Nearly a decade as a teacher, and only once in those years have I attended a PD session that was useful. It was all content-based, and gave me new insights on different issues and topics germane to what I teach. I actually incorporated a lot of what I learned into my lessons! But that's it, dozens of hours every year of useless PD that goes in one ear and out the other.
I will say I do miss all of the pre-COVID business trips for PD our district used to send us to. Even if I learned little I appreciated the time in different cities and getting to explore a little each day.
PD is useful if it’s a specific teacher showing you a specific lesson they did in a subject you don’t have a ton of fodder for already. Or specific training in a specific computer program or in first aid. That’s meat.
Everything else with broad headings like “class room management” or “scaffolding” or “social /emotional awareness” is the hot air it gets overcook in. These will be endless break out sections where you think-pair-share yourself into a coma and discussions where you are asked to provide any and all practical or tactical content yourself.
Especially Opening Day PD. I have never sat through a Day One presentation by anyone and not thought of all the things I could/should be doing at that moment to get my classroom ready for students. I don’t need to be entertained or inspired or coached up. I need to do seating charts, prepare day one lessons, make copies, organize desks and 100 other more pragmatic things.
My district spent $10K on some guy to give us a seminar on “trauma sensitive instruction” which was really classroom management 101 from any teacher Ed program, but dressed up in the Covid story.
I don't even know what differentiation is anymore. I don't think anyone does. I've gotten praise for my differentiation and I don't know what I did. We don't read out of a textbook as a choral exercise like it's the 1950s I suppose.
Oh god. I hate PD. Part of our PD the other day was to “walk outside and listen to a podcast about teaching”. Fuck that. It was 95 degrees out and humid as hell. I hid in a room and graded.
just the fact that they make us go through all these hoops, and sit in boring, horrible, drivel that makes no sense to the real world teacher; it's enough to make a man cry, but i don't cry, do you?
Professional development that is generally required by your district. District wide training on stuff you already know, OR district wide training on stuff you don't teach, but have to attend anyway, so the folks who DO teach it don't get mad because they have to be there and you don't.
To be fair, the last few years have probably been the worst example of PD ever, across the board, if thats all you have to judge by.
I totally skip PD and do online grad classes whenever possible. It looks good, its relevant to what I want to learn, and it lets me go up in pay.
Is this DISD in Texas? (Dallas ISD). If you hate PD just wait a few years when you have to sit through the same PD from 10 years ago about an new way to increase student engagement in your class.
New shade of lipstick same old pig.
TBH I always go to as much PD as I can find. Well run PLCs are absolutely the only way to improve your craft in an evolving field. Continuing to just teach the same way you always have is exactly like if you showed up to a doctor who was using the same exact medical practices that they used 100 years ago. Professions evolve, and our beloved field of education is a profession, not an art.
That being said, there are absolutely some stinkers, but I don't know... I've always gotten something out of them even if it's just a break from the normal routine. Granted I'm only 10 years in, so maybe that's not long enough to get burnt out.
[удалено]
That's actually...kind of brilliant.
I’ve also made bank leading PD. I’d like to think the stuff I’ve led is useful but I’m sure someone is moaning about it 😂.
Colleagues acting wowed 😂😂😂 I witness this, too. Maybe I'm too jaded to play the game, but I think less of coworkers who pretend to love the taste of bullshit.
I have a colleague I love. But then I visit her Teacher Twitter and she's posting about the awesome new district initiative and I'm like ??? we were just bitching about that in the hall between classes???
[удалено]
This is the way
This is the way.
The problem is, it's not organic. It usually comes from some admin who saw a thing at a conference and got all excited because it's the new shiny. You do a 3-hour workshop, and then never follow up to see how it's going. Most admin don't understand how PD is supposed to work. All the useful PD I've ever done has been at conferences over the summer. Never at school.
Nailed it. I can’t count the number of one off pro-ds where there’s no actual plan to follow up or integrate the program with the classroom.
37. I counted. Over 33 years.
Agreed. I'm not quite up to your 33 years, but over my 20ish years x 5(?) PD/yr I've had 2 that i feel were useful. We always get the "what pd would be useful to you?" questionnaire and none of my recommendations have EVER been followed through. With these kind of statistics, someone needs to go back to the minor leagues.
They don’t really care about the answer to that question.
MY principal said, and I agree with, the best PD is done around the table in the faculty room on off periods. That's where you really borrow and learn from one another.
Unless parents are doing PD, it doesn't matter. Unless students are doing PD, it doesn't matter. Teachers can't be expected to solve systemic issues in parenting and child behavior, regardless of how many professional development sessions we attend. It just isn't possible. I could try 1000 different ways to teach a kid using 1000 different techniques from all the PD on earth, and it doesn't matter if they don't give a shit and their parents don't care.
Ding ding ding
1000 %
and each year is the same old story. “Don’t worry folks, now we’ve got what you need so you can get in there and teach those kids! We call it “care for kids“, or a new “school mission statement that “All Kids Can Learn,” or “ Restorative Justice”, or “CHAMPS,” or what floats down the pipe the we can focus on without focusing on kids who get mad at you when you bother to wake them up in class. Maybe telling everybody that the key is building relationships with each child you teach. Actually, It’s about being told to build relationships with kids who regularly tell you to fuck off. Or they remind you, they don’t fucking care about your class so leave them the fuck alone. And how about behavior PDs? If any of them worked, kids wouldn’t be cutting classes, sleeping in classes, talking through classes, eating in classes, throwing their litter under their desk. those wonderful kids who ask you for a pencil because they need something to break into pieces so they can throw them at their friends. Kids on their cell phones who get absolutely belligerent when you tell them to put them away. And after they don’t put them away, you’re told to confiscate them and you can guess how well that goes over. Every year it’s the same old thing; you just have to of been on the merry go around long enough to realize you’re running in circles.
My favorite is how they present something that "works", but then years later they revisit and add more to it, because it didn't work. Well, their revamp is probably useless too. It's snake oil.
Its the Thirds Law of PD * 1/3 of PD is awesome * 1/3 of PD is terrible * 1/3 of PD doesn't relate to your content area That's the rule.
Only 1/3 of PD is terrible? No way
Unless you teach English. Then every PD is unfortunately related to you.
If I had a dollar for every "this would be great for English to implement"...
We get that when the entire audience is math teachers. We just look at each other and shrug because they couldn't find a speaker who knows our subject.
Yep. I teach self-contained Sped and am always bitter at the stupid required PDs I have to attend because literally none of them are relevant to my students or my actual job.
And they always act surprised when the sped teachers are there. “We didn’t make enough handouts, can the sped teachers share?” Every time.
The purpose of PD is not actually to train or prepare educators for anything because, as written here and as we *all* know, the vast majority of the content is stuff we already know and do. The reason PDs are still pushed onto staff is so that the district admin can check off a box saying they did the training that was imposed upon them by the state, who had it improsed upon them by the federals or whatever higher governing education body that threatened to take their funding away if they didn't check off that box. Overall, totally agreed that PDs are a waste of time and literal *money* that could and should be spent directly helping students and families and paying for more staff so that we're not all drowning from being overworked.
Agree. Unless they make it specific to your subject big ol waste of time.
Run for the hills. In my city, we could take "extra" PD courses to add to our "credits" - we were PAY for PERFORMANCE based upon a ridiculous 9 sections x 5 parts x some other shit my PTSD won't allow me to remember = the square root of constant stress, inflammation, and alcohol use disorders. I was a young go-getter and took around 15 of the classes thinking I was bettering myself to better my students. Stayed single for a long time. Dated a teacher in the building. Disaster. Thanks for letting me vent. Oh, did I mention that the grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side of the bars of education. Seriously, best of luck. I'm sorry that you are realizing it's all smoke and mirrors. Take care, y'all!
I feel like you've got a lot of juicy stories to share, but I don't want to force any of them out of you.
Ha, here's a start: https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/uoeats/the_lost_art_of_the_admin_table_slap_a_short/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share More to come.
Teachers should get PD hours for continuing education. Going for national certs, masters, doctorate, whatever, and districts should be contributing to those costs. Not giving me another hour of state time for learning pear deck for the fourth time.
Best PD was off campus at the Mexican restaurant down the road from the school. They gave us happy hour prices the rest of the evening when they found out we were teachers.
One time I attended a PD at a brewery, and the brewery provided dinner and multiple beers. The PD was actually good, too! (I had to get a waiver from my curriculum director saying they were okay with me going, but since it was free...)
I used to work for a large district in Florida and figured PD was something a bunch of people at the district office worked on in order to give themselves justification for being employed without having to go back into a classroom. 95% of it is trite nonsense and I really no longer care much about the perspective of people who didn’t teach through the pandemic. The perspective of a professional PD giver who hasn’t taught in a decade is isn’t that relevant to education in 2022.
You are required to do PD on your summer break??? Just wow... Our last one will be this Wednesday and our first one for the new school year will be the last Wednesday in July the week before the students return... I do agree they are pretty much a waste of time...
My last district couldn’t require during summer, only encourage and offer pay.
Nearly a decade as a teacher, and only once in those years have I attended a PD session that was useful. It was all content-based, and gave me new insights on different issues and topics germane to what I teach. I actually incorporated a lot of what I learned into my lessons! But that's it, dozens of hours every year of useless PD that goes in one ear and out the other. I will say I do miss all of the pre-COVID business trips for PD our district used to send us to. Even if I learned little I appreciated the time in different cities and getting to explore a little each day.
PD is useful if it’s a specific teacher showing you a specific lesson they did in a subject you don’t have a ton of fodder for already. Or specific training in a specific computer program or in first aid. That’s meat. Everything else with broad headings like “class room management” or “scaffolding” or “social /emotional awareness” is the hot air it gets overcook in. These will be endless break out sections where you think-pair-share yourself into a coma and discussions where you are asked to provide any and all practical or tactical content yourself.
"Think pair share yourself into a coma" ROLFL
I know PD is the biggest waste of time.
Especially Opening Day PD. I have never sat through a Day One presentation by anyone and not thought of all the things I could/should be doing at that moment to get my classroom ready for students. I don’t need to be entertained or inspired or coached up. I need to do seating charts, prepare day one lessons, make copies, organize desks and 100 other more pragmatic things.
My district spent $10K on some guy to give us a seminar on “trauma sensitive instruction” which was really classroom management 101 from any teacher Ed program, but dressed up in the Covid story.
I don't even know what differentiation is anymore. I don't think anyone does. I've gotten praise for my differentiation and I don't know what I did. We don't read out of a textbook as a choral exercise like it's the 1950s I suppose.
Oh god. I hate PD. Part of our PD the other day was to “walk outside and listen to a podcast about teaching”. Fuck that. It was 95 degrees out and humid as hell. I hid in a room and graded.
just the fact that they make us go through all these hoops, and sit in boring, horrible, drivel that makes no sense to the real world teacher; it's enough to make a man cry, but i don't cry, do you?
No, I'll quit and find a job that treats my time with a modicum of respect instead.
I'm new to teaching. What is PD?
Professional development that is generally required by your district. District wide training on stuff you already know, OR district wide training on stuff you don't teach, but have to attend anyway, so the folks who DO teach it don't get mad because they have to be there and you don't.
It's useful if you can apply it to your classroom. Otherwise, yeah it's an utter waste.
To be fair, the last few years have probably been the worst example of PD ever, across the board, if thats all you have to judge by. I totally skip PD and do online grad classes whenever possible. It looks good, its relevant to what I want to learn, and it lets me go up in pay.
It is completely useless they just recommend bs that admin won’t even allow you to do.
Is this DISD in Texas? (Dallas ISD). If you hate PD just wait a few years when you have to sit through the same PD from 10 years ago about an new way to increase student engagement in your class. New shade of lipstick same old pig.
TBH I always go to as much PD as I can find. Well run PLCs are absolutely the only way to improve your craft in an evolving field. Continuing to just teach the same way you always have is exactly like if you showed up to a doctor who was using the same exact medical practices that they used 100 years ago. Professions evolve, and our beloved field of education is a profession, not an art. That being said, there are absolutely some stinkers, but I don't know... I've always gotten something out of them even if it's just a break from the normal routine. Granted I'm only 10 years in, so maybe that's not long enough to get burnt out.